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Joe Brown

Legendary UK rock & roller celebrating his 50th year in the music business

New Theatre, 13 Nov 2009

Location

No frills, a bare stage, no fancy lighting – Joe Brown’s show is all performance, and a very slick performance it is. He has been performing for 42 years, apparently, and has recently been awarded an MBE. Looking round the almost full auditorium, most of the audience were the same vintage as himself and you get the feeling that some of them follow his show around the country. For this reason he seems to choose his songs with care so that, although the choice appears spontaneous, it is in fact all very carefully rehearsed. Even the supposed reluctance of the rest of the performers to let him play the banjo (which he eventually does and very well) is part of a well-polished act.

With a huge variety of stringed instruments on stage (I counted about 15 and they included double bass, violin, several guitars both classical and electric, mandolin and mandola, dombra, ukulele and banjo) and drums, Joe Brown and his band led us through a wide repertoire of songs ranging from ballads to rock. He started with a 1930s song, The Ballad of John Hurt, and his repertoire included many of his own hits, Elvis and Bob Dylan songs, as well as a U2 song. Joe retains his image of a cheeky chappy, with jokes, often self-deprecating, between the songs and a smile always on his lips. He has a very talented band around him, including his own son Pete. I once read an interview with Pete in which he said that Joe was a very strict father, but they obviously have a very good relationship now and they played several duos together, among them Duelling Banjos and a moving tribute to George Harrison, That’s the Way it Goes, in which Pete excelled himself on the guitar. Pete is indeed a very fine musician and sang a couple of solos himself, including a reggae song from his own album. With them on stage were Mike on bass, the drummer Phil, who did a great performance of an Elvis song (if you closed your eyes the voice was perfect), and Roland who himself has a lovely, very unusual voice and also sang a solo.

Is Joe Brown always a ‘cheeky chappy’? I don’t know. What is obvious, though, is that the audience come to his shows knowing what they want and he delivers time after time after time.